New review for Rebirth, book 2 in the Dystopian fiction series

Another great review in from Amazon:

A Sequel That's Better Than The Original

What truly fascinated me while reading 'Rebirth' by Michael Poeltl, was how the growth and development of both the main character Sara and her son Leif mirrored the growth and development of Mr. Poeltl as an author. His first book, The Judas Syndrome, was well written albeit sometimes a little difficult to digest content wise. This second installment of what is to be a trilogy of novels, takes the reader on a more succinct and inclusive emotional journey.

Written through the eyes of Sara, the book does a fantastic job of tying up some loose ends from the first novel while exploring the progression and in some cases regression of familiar characters. The gritty and sometimes too blunt tones of the first book, have been tempered this time around. While still painting a very desperate,desolate and graphic picture of this post apocalyptic world, Mr. Poeltl has crafted the narrative in such a way that you feel a stronger connection to the main character and her journey then of Joel in his first book. The read is more of a story 'sharing' instead of a story 'telling', which in turn made me as a reader feel more invested in the outcome.

What surprised me the most was that his characterization and literal portrayal of Sara and her plight as a new mom in this uncertain dystopic future, never came across as written from a male's perspective - which should appeal to female readers of the novel. The imagery that Mr. Poeltl presents in this novel is stunning, and further highlights his development as a writer. Scenes and scenery are described in the kind of detail an artist uses to paint a picture. The story itself is well laid out, and coherent. There were however a few times I found myself wishing that he'd explored certain events in a little more detail given he didn't have the same time constraints that a movie version of the novel would.

But that, and the somewhat out of place love interest storyline are the only minor issues I had with a novel that did everything to succeed and exceed it's predecessor in the novel trilogy. 'Rebirth' is a fantastic read, and even better follow up to 'The Judas Syndrome'. It follows in the tradition of great sequels, and leaves me excited to read the conclusion to this story. An excellent follow up book by Mr. Poeltl, and I'm sure one of many great works of literature of his to come. - Michael Pongracz

See the review here